FCSD enrollment declines about 100, Hardrick reports

Enrollment within the Forrest City School District has declined by approximately 100 students since the 2024-25 school year, with an enrollment this year of 1,811 students across the district. According to a report FCSD Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Hardrick shared with the board at its Thursday meeting, the district has roughly 326 students enrolled at Central Elementary, 428 enrolled at Stewart Elementary, 122 enrolled at Lincoln Middle Academy of Excellence, 269 enrolled at the junior high and 494 enrolled at high school. There are 172 students in kindergarten and preschool. Also during the meeting, board members learned that due to the decrease in virtual classes needed in the district, there would likely be a decrease in costs for the Arkansas Virtual Academy. According to Hardrick, the district has made strides in decreasing the number of students in virtual classes. "We did a comparison of how many classes were virtual last year to how many classes were virtual this year," said Hardrick. "It was at 64 last year and this year it is at 30. We wanted to cut it in half. I know a lot of this is contributed to the number of teachers. Each of those classes cost around $8,000 so you will see a decrease in that." A public comment was issued prior to the start of the meeting by Delores Morelon of Forrest City regarding the Lincoln School campus. According to Morelon, the Lincoln High School Alumni Association has concerns about the changing of the name Lincoln on the school building. “We, the Lincoln High School Alumni Association, are here today to be clear that the name Lincoln is not removed from the school campus located at Broadway and Water Street. We do not oppose the addition of any name. We applaud Mrs. (Vivian) Ryan and her accomplishments and we are more than grateful to her. Lincoln is our school history and we do not want the name removed. We ask that you give our request a fair conclusion. Thank you for your time." Board members also heard from the district's project manager, Sen. Reginald Murdock, regarding bidding processes on the HVAC project at the junior high as well as the future of the Ryan complex project on the Lincoln campus. "We had a pre-bid conference earlier for the junior high HVAC project that we are working on," said Murdock. "We had very good participation. We had several contractors come out to the pre bid meeting. Of course the architects were there and led the meeting. We are looking forward to the bidding now on September 30. We are waiting on the Vivian Ryan complex until after we get those bids in on September 30 to look at the total budget as well as any decisions made by the board. We are just waiting on direction." "I thought we had a contract with Store Services for HVAC," said board member Annie Norman. "That is a maintenance contract," Murdock responded. "So they don't put in heating and air?” asked Norman. "They don't do anything like that?" "They have a right to bid like the rest of the companies for the job," said Murdock. "They can bid on the new project. What I think you are talking about is the service contract on the existing system that you all already have in place. That's not for new construction. It is a maintenance contract." "Did you mention that you had the pre-bids for the Vivian Ryan complex?” asked board president Evetta Whitby. "No, that bid is done," said Murdock. "Did you bring them tonight?” asked Whitby. "Are we going to discuss them tonight?" During the discussion, Hardrick addressed the concerns of the Lincoln Alumni regarding the changes being made on the Lincoln Campus for the Ryan complex project. "Yes I can discuss them and then share some context so that we can clarify the language because I think there is a misconception on the intent of the district," said Hardrick. "It was at the request of the board that we seek this project, but I think that it needs attention and it needs to be clarified. I want people to know we have a win and not an adversary situation." Hardrick stated that there has never been an intent to change or remove the name Lincoln from the campus property. "What we talked about was that the recommendation was to give honor to the years of service that Mrs. Ryan has given the ABC School in Pre-K education," said Hardrick. "That location is now on the Lincoln Campus. I want to be very clear that Forrest City School District has never even thought about impacting the legacy and heritage of Lincoln. The name of the building says right now, "ABC School at Lincoln.” The intent to change that has never been that at all." According to Hardrick, the district plans to add signage and things to areas that were not original parts of the Lincoln campus. "What we bid was around the gym, which was not a part of the original structure and we talked about doing some restoration work on the white building," said Hardrick. "We also talked about adding signage somewhere on the site near the gym that would read something about Mrs. Ryan and the ABC School. The lowest bid came in at about $213,000. There are some roof issues at the gym and some inside structure stuff as well." Hardrick said this stems from when the ABC School was moved to the Lincoln campus to make it more utilized by the district. "I would also like to also offer some history for some context," said Hardrick. "There is a reason why we looked for ABC and Lincoln to work together. About eight years ago, the ABC School moved from its old location to the Lincoln site. That decision was made to save the Lincoln building. About seven or eight years ago there was some new legislation put in place where districts were required to submit building utilization. So if a building was not being used at a certain capacity. The law said that a charter school had the right of first refusal on our facilities." According to Hardrick, the Stay at Stewart campaign that was initiated by parents in the district was to help students not have to change campuses for their fifth grade year, putting an end to KIPP Delta within the community. "Lincoln campus had two grades, fifth and sixth," said Hardrick. "However, we were also fighting our kids coming back from KIPP. KIPP was enrolling about 75 kids a year. We did focus groups with parents and they came up with something called the "Stay at Stewart" campaign. The campaign was about fifth graders staying at Stewart and not having to leave their building. Parents said if you let us stay at Stewart, we won't leave and go somewhere else." "KIPP dropped from 75 kids per year to 25 kids per year until ultimately they had to close in our community," continued Hardrick. "So our plan worked. The impact of that is that Lincoln was then under utilized and when it became under utilized, it allowed charter schools to coexist with us in our buildings or they could have the building. They had first right of refusal. So we came up with the idea to move ABC to Lincoln so that we could get the utilization up. There are rules around how many square feet must be allowed per pre-k kid. So, the utilization rate was higher." Hardrick stated that the conversation needs to shift at some point to the old white building in need of complete renovation at some point. "That meant that Lincoln was off of the list for a possible charter school moving in," said Hardrick. "That left the old ABC facility to be the one we had to offer up to them and because it was an older building with issues, they turned it down. That decision to transition saved that facility from being open to someone else. That relationship is what has helped us hold that space. I think that the conversation should be at some point about the white facility."

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